NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Debra Teufel with the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce is pleased with the conclusions that Olsson Studios came up with and that were discussed at the public meetings last week as part of the Downtown Hutch Master Plan process.
"Ken Boone was very complimentary of Hutchinson, from the very beginning," Teufel said. "They've been studying our community. They kicked the week off with some economic data that I think will make this community feel really proud. Since 2012, our vacancy rate has dropped from about 12% down to 1%, which is an incredible drop and means we're doing the right things to activate spaces, especially on our core Main Street. I think one of the things he came away with is we need to do a better job of signage, of entrances into the community, of wayfinding and to direct people to the great assets that we have and our tourism assets downtown."
It's also important not only to fill those downtown spaces with business, but to be thinking ahead about housing.
"Over the next 10 to 20 years, we're going to need between 1000 to 2000 more housing units as a community," Teufel said. "They actually project population growth. To keep up with that, we need more housing units. He saw a lot of ways that we can take some of the older industrial warehouse type buildings downtown and convert those into living spaces."
Teufel also was impressed by another statistic that shows more people shopping in Hutchinson than there used to be.
"I was really gratified to see one of the data points he shared about our retail trade pull factor," Teufel said. "That measures how we are doing compared to the rest of the state. In 2017, we were below one, meaning that we were not keeping up with the rest of the state in our retail trade pull. As of today, he measured our retail trade pull factor at 1.19, which means we are doing 19% better than the rest of Kansas when it comes to retail trade pull into our community."
The online survey portion of the Downtown Master Plan process continues through April 28.
More information about the Downtown Hutch Master Plan and opportunities to get involved can be found on the project website, www.DowntownHutchMasterPlan.com.
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